


Arc-Ko-Sine

by Maldevinine



Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Teachers, F/M, Fluff, Food Porn, Slice of Life, Trigger Warning: Maths, puns
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-29
Updated: 2019-06-23
Packaged: 2020-02-09 17:40:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18642904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maldevinine/pseuds/Maldevinine
Summary: Teaching wasn't Jaune's first choice, but there wasn't many other options when failing a maths degree. A small country high school wasn't his first choice either, but he had a degree and a half to pay for. He was just going to have to get used to people half his age calling him "Mr Arc" and expecting him to know the answers to all their problems. Surely the rest of the faculty would help?





	1. Chapter 1

It was the first day of Jaune’s first full teaching position out of uni, and already he was thinking of the pupil-free day as the greatest gift he could have been given. Right after that was the coffee, black and bitter but oh so powerful. He’d been early to try and make a good impression but outside of the janitor who had let him in he wasn’t sure who he was making a good impression on. The teacher’s lounge had been empty when he arrived so he had made the coffee, found himself a mug and was currently looking over the walls to get some idea of the school that had given him his first opportunity.

The artwork reflected the rural nature of the school, natural scenes and local landscapes clearly produced by the arts classes, some members more talented then others. Only one wall had windows, and they looked out over the teacher’s car park rather then any part of the school. Jaune rather liked that touch, it made it easier to pretend there wasn’t going to be 200 screaming kids outside that he was expected to look after. He was moving on to checking all the other cabinets in the room when he heard rapid footsteps from outside and a sudden call of “Coffee!” as the door was flung open.

Fortunately, Jaune had finished his mug. Unfortunately, he was standing between the door and the coffee machine.

The owner of the voice impacted somewhere around his waist, shunting him sideways and forcing him to grab for the bench to try and stay upright. The smooth laminate surface didn’t provide anything to grip onto and Jaune was introduced to the floor at the same time as he was introduced to his first fellow teacher.

All he could see from his position on his back was a mass of short black hair, ending in tips of red. He looked up towards the door as it was pushed open more gently and a blonde bombshell walked through with a motorcycle helmet in each hand.

“I didn’t expect you to be falling for the new guy on his first day Ruby.” the bombshell spoke as she laid both helmets on the counter.

“Yaaanngg.” the mass of black hair lying on him whined.

“Now are you going to help him get up or help him get off?”

“YANG!” This time the whine was much louder, and the mass of black hair shoved against him to get back up. He had a momentary glimpse of black and red before whoever it was was behind him and going for the coffee pot before the view was replaced by Yang’s now empty hand. He took it and she pulled him up with ease, at least until he was mostly upright and found out that he was nearly a whole head taller then her. He changed the grip so he was shaking her hand and introduced himself.

“Hi, I’m Jaune, I’m starting here this year.”

“Well helllooo, I’m Yang and your new friend is Ruby.”

“He’s not my friend” came from behind Jaune.

“I made the coffee.” he replied

“He’s my best friend!” came the voice from much closer. Ruby had both hands around the mug and was inhaling the steam rather then trying to drink it while standing where she could see both Yang and Jaune.

“So what do you teach?” asked Yang.

“I can do most subjects for the early years, but my passion is maths.”

The reaction from the two could not have been more different. Yang recoiled slightly before schooling her expression while Ruby bounced on the balls of her feet in excitement.

“That’s so cool! We haven’t had a dedicated maths teacher for _years._ I’ve even had to teach classes in it.”

Jaune took his first good look at Ruby. He wasn’t sure how the gothic attire had made it past departmental dress codes, but he knew from experience that standards at country schools were laxer then the bigger city schools. It was the only way he’d gotten the job after all. Still, Ruby made the black corset over her red top look good and the flared black pants were just on the right side of flashy for the school to be able to overlook them. Yang stripped off her motorcycle jacket and dropped it on top of the helmets before looking over at Ruby.

“I don’t know how you can stand the stuff Rubes, I choose this job to _avoid_ maths.”

“And you still needed my help when you got to those classes on nutrition and energy usage.” Ruby stuck her tongue out at Yang for good measure as well.

“Ruby covers metal and woodworking classes, as well as anything that involves power tools around the school. I cover health and physical education.”

“How many teachers are there at this school?” asked Jaune.

“Twelve regulars, plus a few rotating fill ins that we share with the other high school in town when somebody wants holidays.” Yang was about to say more when the door opened again and a very severe blonde woman walked in. Jaune instinctively straightened when he saw her and patted down his own black shirt to make sure it was still tucked in.

“Good Morning Miss Goodwitch.” Ruby and Yang chorused.

“Good morning Miss Xiao-Long, Miss Rose.” Glynda replied and Jaune matched the voice to the woman who had done his phone interview only a few weeks prior. “And you must be Mr Arc. I see you found to break room adequately. I hope that luck continues.”

“I made coffee.” offered Jaune.

“I see.” Glynda just continued to stare at Jaune. He broke first, looking down at the ground and scratching his hand through the hair on the back of his neck. He needed to get a hair cut. While he wasn’t looking Glynda took two rapid steps to the side and Jaune looked up again into the face of a short and overly pink woman who bounced into the room followed by the first man other then the janitor that Jaune had seen this morning.

“Hello Everybody! And hello new guy! Not that you’re not part of everybody, I just think that you should be welcomed separately because you’re...”

“Nora, I think he gets it.” said the man behind, laying a calming hand on Nora’s shoulder that stilled the bouncing.

“Hi new guy. I’m Nora and this is Ren. Ren’s great, you should totally be bros...”

As Nora talked, Jaune looked Ren in the eyes and bowed his head slightly. Ren nodded in return. Jaune dropped his eyes to Nora then back to Ren. Ren shook his head slightly. Jaune raised an eyebrow. Ren shrugged the shoulder that wasn’t currently supporting his hand on Nora. Nora trailed off and looked back to Ren.

“Did I miss something?”

“Nothing you need to worry about.” said Ren, combining the words with a gentle squeeze of her shoulder. “Now let’s take a seat and wait for the others to get here.”

Nora’s eyes fell on the still half full coffee pot.

“Hey, there’s coffee!”

Yang and Ruby formed up in front of the coffee machine, blocking Nora’s view of it.

“I’ll make you some tea.” said Ren in a voice that spoke of long suffering.

“But coffee...”

“Nora, no.” said Miss Goodwitch. Nora finally settled into one of the comfortable couches and let Ren move to the sink and the kettle. Ren had two mugs out when the door opened again the biggest Asian, no biggest man that Jaune had seen walked in. Ren smoothly pulled out another mug and dropped a tea bag into it. The big man stepped up next to Ren and nudged him slightly before Glynda called out in greeting.

“Mr Dachi. Nice of you to join us.”

Dachi filled his mug from the kettle before turning to face where Miss Goodwitch was sitting and nodding to her. Ruby jumped forward and crashed into Mr Dachi. He didn’t move, just wrapped the his free arm around Ruby as she hugged his leg.

“Ruby, it’s only been two weeks since you’ve seen him. He hasn’t changed since then.” said Yang.

“I am happy to see you as well Ruby.” said Mr Dachi. “I hope you have been well.”

Ruby’s response was interrupted by a tapping from the door. A mid height dark skinned young man stepped through the doorway, followed by an elegantly dressed woman. Yang reached out with a hand in a high five and the first man calmly met it with his own in a loud clap.

“Fox, Coco! Great to see you two!”

“Great to _see_ you Yang.” The stress on the word see was obvious and Yang responded with a broad grin. At least until the woman slapped her on the shoulder as they walked past and she guided both of them to another of the couches. Ren sat down next to Nora and passed her the second mug of tea while he raised his to his face and breathed in the steam. Both he and Nora relaxed into their seats as Jaune looked around and counted the number of people that were present.

“Are we waiting for anybody else?” he asked.

“There are still two to come.” said Glynda.

The door opens one last time and a pair of women strode through, both breathing hard and slightly flushed. The first had black hair which she shook out of it’s ponytail as she stepped in, letting it fall down her back and frame her face and golden eyes that seemed to glow. The second left her red hair up and recovered her breath faster, green eyes darting over the room and settling on the thing that was out of place. Jaune gulped and stepped forward with his hand out, taking his one last chance to make a good first impression.

“Hi, the name’s Jaune Arc. Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue. Ladies love it.”

Those green eyes were just short of his own. Their owner must have been taller then almost everybody else in the room. She covered her mouth with one hand but Jaune could see the smile move the edges of her eyes.

“Do we?”

Jaune stuttered, raising the hand that she wasn’t going to shake to the back of his neck and scratching nervously. Her smile got broad enough to peek out from behind her hand and she started to gently giggle. Jaune mourned the death of his dignity.

“If the two of you are _quite_ finished, we shall begin.” came Miss Goodwitch’s stern voice.

It turned out the funeral was premature, his dignity could not have been dead before because Glynda just killed it.

 

With all the seats in the room taken, Jaune and the most recent arrival backed against the long bench. Jaune recollected his coffee mug to have something to fiddle with to calm his nerves. The small amount of background noise had settled immediately at Miss Goodwitch’s words. Jaune had the uncomfortable feeling that he was back in a classroom himself, looking at the teacher and waiting for her to begin lecturing.

“To those of you who are returning, welcome back. To our newest member of the faculty, welcome. Mr Arc has already introduced himself but he will be teaching mathematics for all levels and is the reason we are able to offer Specialist Mathematics this year.” both Yang and the new black haired woman who he hadn’t been introduced to yet shuddered at the mention of maths. Glynda continued smoothly, ignoring any responses from the other teachers.

“I expect all of you to help him get started here. Once we are done this morning I will be showing him around the school.”

Jaune tried to follow the rest of the discussion; A mash of timetables, dates, events that he barely remembered from his own schooling and in jokes between the others that spoke of long familiarity, but it rapidly got away from him so he fiddled harder with his coffee mug and waited for it to end. At some point Glynda had moved to a whiteboard year planner across half a wall and was marking off sections and dates before she called out to him.

“Mr Arc, do you have any holidays for this year that you will need time off for?”

“Holidays? No, no, I have six year’s worth of HECS debt to pay.”

“It took you six years to complete a teaching degree?” asked Nora. Ren grabbed at her shoulder to calm her back down. Jaune’s hand found the back of his neck.

“Nora doesn’t think before she speaks. You don’t have to answer her.” came a voice from beside him. He caught a gentle smile out of the corner of his eye and put his hand back on the coffee mug.

“If there is nothing else, you all have lessons to be preparing for. Jaune, if you will follow me I will show you to your classroom.”

 

Jaune surveyed what would become his domain. His desk stood proudly at the front, beaten and battered but unbroken by the years. It was good solid wood and had probably been built by the original settlers. Twenty five other desks faced it, cheap and almost as old with simple metal frames and easily replaceable wooden tops. Three full blackboards covered the wall behind his desk. He touched the closest one reverently, feeling the rough surface under his fingertips. He hadn’t seen blackboards since he was in primary school. There were as yet no decorations in the room, no touch of life or home to it. Jaune wasn’t worried, he had a whole year to fix that.

“Are you happy with the room?” Miss Goodwitch asked.

“I’m sure I can work with this.”

“Very well. You are sharing office space with the science teachers, as they have the closest staff room to where you will be working and you offered to cover science classes as well in the interview.”

Oh yes, he had said that. He would have to put aside time to read the syllabi for those classes. Turning off the light before he backed out the classroom (his classroom), he followed Miss Goodwitch past a few other classroom doors before she opened a door labelled “Do Not Open: Science In Progress” and waved him inside. Fox’s voice came from a desk at the back as he greeted both of them.

“Miss Goodwitch, Jaune.”

“Fox.” replied Jaune.

“NORA!” came a call from under another desk, rapidly followed by a thump.

“Nora, come out from under the desk before leaping for joy.” suggested Fox in a voice that rang of long suffering.

“But it’s important!” Nora reappeared and dusted her hands off on her short pink skirt. “I’ve hooked up the power and network connections for your computer. You get this desk because it’s the one with the dodgy leg that doesn’t match all the others and that’s why I put it next to the door because that keeps Fox and I as far away from the students as possible when they come in and now that you’re here there’s an extra layer of protection and at this rate by the end of the year I won’t have to interact with students at all.”

“Breathe Nora.”

“But it’s our new roomie! We’re going to be best friends and do everything together. Well, not best best friends because that’s Ren and no we’re not together-together...”

Jaune looked over Nora’s head and caught Fox’s eye. He raised an eyebrow then scratched at his ear. Fox took his meaning immediately and threw a small packet over the top of Nora’s head for Jaune to catch. In the next break in Nora’s monologue Fox pointed to the colourful foam in his own ear and said

“Ruby over in tech hooks me up. She’s also the go-to for anything that breaks around school. Or at your home if you are prepared to pay.”

With the earplugs cutting Nora’s running commentary down to a background hum, Jaune worked through the mountain of paperwork involved with starting a new job. He got the keys he would need, got his timetable of classes for the week, started sorting through the provided textbooks to find what he would need to teach said classes, got annoyed at the textbooks and started feeding half-remembered names into Google to try and find torrent or magnet links to digitisations of the works he remembered learning from. That wasted enough time that Nora had to poke him on her way past and out the door to remind him that he should have lunch.

He trailed after Fox and Nora, committing what he could see of the school to memory as he walked. It was mostly single story buildings around a central courtyard that would be big enough to hold all 200 students that he had been told attended. Nora’s running commentary changed to mostly useful information about the rooms and the layout which he picked out with skill trained in countless lectures, matching keywords and gestures to doorways and by the time Fox gently opened the break room door he had a decent grasp on where everything he needed was.

About half of the teachers were already there. Ren was calmly working on something at the bench and he pushed a mug of tea over to Nora without looking up while Fox raided the fridge for the sandwiches he had left there in the morning. The black haired and scruffy looking janitor was propped up in a corner, looking very uncomfortable but also asleep. Jaune just took a seat on a free couch and relaxed.

“You’re not eating?” asked Nora.

“Didn’t have time to make anything this morning. Still unpacking everything.”

Nora nudged Ren at the bench, who sighed, produced another bowl from somewhere and split what he had between the three. All three bowls got forks stuck in them and Nora was aggressively pushing one into his hand before he realised what was happening.

“No, no, I’ll be fine.”

“Just take it. It will save a lot of trouble.” said Ren.

Jaune took the bowl, then Ren and Nora joined him on the couch. Nora had to squeeze in between the two men on a seat that was meant for two. Jaune took a cautious bite of what he had been offered and he was hit by sharp flavours of chilli and ginger over fresh and barely cooked vegetables. Within seconds he was out of food and looking lost at the now empty bowl. Nora giggled and nudged Ren.

“Jaune, you know you do not have to eat like a teenager any more.” Ren said.

“But it was just sooo good.” Jaune replied, tipping the bowl up to his mouth to drink the last of the sauce. Nora looked expectantly at Ren.

“Nora, No. We are not taking him home and keeping him like a pet.”

“Nora Yes!”

“Nora has a new pet?” asked Ruby as she walked in on the worst part of the conversation.

“No, she doesn’t.” stated Ren, and then he squeezed Nora’s knee before she said anything else.

“Hey, Ruby, the new guy needs a stack of ear plugs.” called Fox from where he was finishing up his food and talking softly to Coco and Yatsuhashi.

“Ah yes, my secret supplies that are the only thing that makes students bearable.” Ruby did her best impression of an evil genius as she spoke, fingertips tapping in sequence.

“You don’t like students?” asked Jaune.

“Students are a necessary evil standing between myself and my true loves, cookies and power tools.” She pulled a packet of Arnott’s out of the bottom cupboard and fished in her pockets before dropping a handful of packets in Jaune’s lap.

“That should last you a few days. Also, talk to me tomorrow after classes and I’ll see about fixing that leg on your desk.”

“How do you know about the dodgy leg?”

Ruby just pointed at Nora. Nora shrugged as if to ask what they were going to do about it. Ren stood up and placed his bowl in Nora’s.

“I have to get back to work. The ovens are clean, but there is still utensils and silverware to sort.”

Before he could get to the door it opened again and let Yang and the tall redhead through. The second held back so she could keep the door open for Ren, who simply nodded in greeting as he passed. Yang had the fridge open by the time she caught up and in practiced motions they split a carton of milk between them. Yang’s half went into a shaker with a packet of protein powder, while the other filled a blender with the milk and a mix of fruit and nuts that had been next to the milk.

“I don’t know how you can call that lunch.” said Nora.

“From the woman who thinks pancakes are a dinner food.” replied Yang.

“That’s not true!”

Yang raised an eyebrow in question.

“Pancakes are an _an_ _ytime_ food.”

The redhead managed to look disapprovingly at everyone over the top of her own concoction.

“Between Yang’s focus on gains, Nora’s love of pancakes and Ruby’s belief that biscuits are nutritionally balanced, I think Ren is the only reason I didn’t come back to three cases of scurvy.”

Nora waved her stack of bowls at the redhead.

“You’re not my mother Pyrrha.”

Jaune could see how Yang started slightly at the comment.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to suggest anything.” said Pyrrha, rapidly losing the confidence she had shown before.

“It’s fine, it’s fine.” said Nora. She got up and moved to where Pyrrha was standing and gave her a short hug before moving on to the sink and starting to wash up. She reached behind herself to take Pyrrha’s glass as she worked.

“How is your prep work going Jaune?” asked Pyrrha, trying to find a distraction.

“Uh, slowly. Still reading syllabi and trying to work out what I’m going to use for my first few lessons.”

“I can help with the...” Pyrrha trailed off.

“Thanks, but I’ve got this. How is your side of it going?”

“Yang and I are about half way through checking the equipment. There’s a lot of gear to move to get to all of it, and this is our best chance to fix anything.”

“You’re teaching P.E.?”

“For three years now.”

“Pyrrha here is the best backup teacher I could have ever had.” said Yang, slapping her on the back as she talked and pushing her back out of the room. “Lovely talk, have to get back to it!”

“She’s wrong you know.” said Nora as she stacked the dishes to drain. Jaune hummed a question mark. “Yang is the best backup teacher _Pyrrha_ could have.” Nora explained. “Now we should get back to it. Students start tomorrow.”

 

Nora’s ability to keep up running commentary was beginning to impress Jaune. She still hadn’t repeated a topic since the start of the day even though it was a just the two of them walking over the exact same route that they had walked not half an hour ago. Where before the descriptions had been of the rooms and the teachers that used them, this time it covered the students. Who sat where, which groups tended to need more supervision then others, where they would go when they wanted privacy, what it would look like before a fight started. Jaune had managed to avoid fights all through his own schooling and was now realising that his new position meant that he would be expected to break them up. Another thing on the list of reasons why teaching hadn’t been his first choice.

But when he was seated again at his desk, he realised it was the choice he was stuck with. And while he would be able to waste a significant fraction of tomorrow on introductions and Department of Education requirements, at some point he would have to teach kids some maths. And hopefully make them enjoy it.

The lower classes were easy. Find what was at the top of the list in the curriculum for that year and try and remember how to explain it to people who hadn’t encountered the concept before. Years 9 and 10 were harder, by that point the classes were starting to segregate on ability as much as they could in a school with enough students for two classes per year and he would be getting the more advanced one. He had to reach further, try and find not just the techniques but also the reasons. Still, maths was what he was good at. It wasn’t until he got to the Year 11 class that he had a problem.

There were six names on the list. Six people who in a small country town had looked at their future and decided that maths was going to be a major part of if. Six people who he had to teach not only know how to do the work, but also how to find the joy in it. Six people to make see maths the same way he did. His head hit the desk.

“Jaune, you ok?” asked Nora.

Fox looked over.

“I recognise that look. That’s the ‘what am I doing?’ look. It happens to people who aren’t so excited about their jobs.” he said. “If you’re done, head out Nora. I’ll take care of this.”

Jaune could feel Nora walking past behind him, a fleeting hand on one shoulder as she passed and left him alone with Fox.

“So, students. All their potential, all that future. There’s a lot there for you to mess up.”

“Is this meant to be helping?” Jaune moaned into his desk.

“But the good thing is that there’s plenty of time to mess up in. You are going to see them tomorrow, then you’re going to see them the day after, and the day after that.”

“Still not helping.”

“So stop trying to make your first lesson perfect, and just get it functional. Learn from your students as to what works and what they need help with, and make your next lesson better. Keep that up for the whole year and you’ll have them singing your praises.”

“Have any of them actually sung your praises?”

“Goodwitch let me cover a music class once. Five minutes with Google translate and I had them singing anything I wanted so long as it was in Latin.”

Jaune couldn’t stop the snort of laughter.

“But to tide you over till then, most of us make a point of commiserating the restarting of our jobs at one of the pubs in town. They do good food as well, so come by The Beacon at six thirty.”

“You know, I think I will.”

Jaune powered down the computer and followed Fox out of the first day of the rest of his life.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So; apparently we're doing this. A school year of Arkos, fluff, food porn and maths puns.
> 
> I have only the vaguest idea of where I'm going with this, so updates will be sporadic and of no set length. It's an Arkos primary fic, but there will be other ships going on in the background and everybody will be shipped with Food. The fact that I'm writing this does not mean I'm giving up on RWBY Road (if any of you are reading both) it just means that I have ideas that I can't fit into that one.
> 
> So; a little bit of housekeeping. This is set in rural Australia which means that the start of the school year is early February; which is the end of summer. There will be less Australian slang then RWBY Road, but I'm also not explaining anything this time around.
> 
> Also, in an attempt to not mess this up (and because they offered after I started beta reading for them) I would like to introduce the excellent FintrumSpedlin (https://archiveofourown.org/users/FintrumSpeldin/pseuds/FintrumSpeldin) who will be beta reading the story. You have no idea how much it hurts my ego to say this, but they are better then I am. Their success at sticking a series of volleyball teams into the cockpits of Gundams and writing a civil war story using them needs to be seen to be believed.

Jaune pushed open the door to the Beacon just as the sun was starting to go down that night. He could tell immediately why, out of the three pubs in town, this was the one that the teachers frequented. He could see both the school and his Department of Education-provided house from where he stood under the verandah, and he was pretty sure he could stumble home from here.

Inside was a perfectly typical country pub. Old bartop, tiled walls from waist height down, an actual foot rail around the bottom of the bar and scattered tables with cheap chairs. Jaune didn’t see anyone he recognised so just stepped up to the bar and leaned on it while looking over the taps. An older grey-haired man with a distinctive green scarf and tiny spectacles moved to stand opposite him.

“And what can I get for you?”

“A schooner of light please. Have any of the teachers come in?”

“It is rather quiet tonight. Yatsuhashi at least is usually early but I would have expected several of them to be here by now.” The barman handed over a short glass of light yellow beer. “That will be $4.70, and Yatsuhashi usually takes the table in the back corner over there.”

Jaune paid and collected the glass, then started to wander around. It was a Monday night so the only other people there were a dedicated drinker at the bar with change stacked in front of him and a pair watching greyhound races. On the wall opposite the television, part of the decorations caught his eye. It was a massive painting, probably two metres high, of a lighthouse on a river through scrub. The scene was painted in portrait view, with the viewpoint slightly above the treetops so that the whole of the land around the lighthouse could be seen. The detailed style of the painting contrasted with the inherent absurdity of the subject. Jaune stared at it while sipping from his glass, trying to work out why the painter would have created it, when a deep voice with a slight Japanese accent interrupted him.

“That is the Beacon that the pub is named for. Ozma can tell you the story.”

Jaune started, he hadn’t heard anybody approach. He recovered and turned to face the voice, recognising and greeting Mr Daichi.

“We are not at work, Jaune. Call me Yatsuhashi.”

Jaune followed Yatsuhashi to what he had been told was the regular table, and they were quickly joined by Fox, who held two glasses. The water-filled one was passed to Yatsuhashi and the beer-filled one was raised to his lips. When he set it down again it was nearly half empty.

“Jaune,” Fox began, “you have no idea how glad I am to see you.”

“Here at the pub?”

“No, at the school.” Fox paused to take another long drink from his glass. “I mean, teaching’s great, except for the paperwork, and I don’t hate anybody I work with, but it’s a bit weird when the only other man in the building is Yats.”

“What about Ren?”

“Ren is best understood as an attachment to Nora, rather than as a person in his own right.”

Jaune let that statement hang for a while, not quite sure if it deserved a response. He settled for moving on.

“How many others are coming?”

It was Yatsuhashi who answered.

“Coco will be coming, and she will bring Velvet. Pyrrha and Yang will both come. Ruby doesn’t drink but Yang may bring Blake.”

“Which one is Blake again?”

“Black hair, English teacher, came in this morning with Pyrrha. You have not met Velvet yet.”

“Speaking of,” Fox said, reinserting himself into the conversation, “have you noticed anything special about all the other teachers?”

“I’m not sure?”

“They’re all hot. Like, supermodel hot.”

Jaune thought on that for nearly a minute, solidly distracted by visions of the various other members of the faculty. He did hit a snag with one of them.

“Even Miss Goodwitch?”

“Especially Glynda.” replied Yatsuhashi. “She makes me think of keeping library books past the return date, so that she would have a reason to punish me.”

Jaune stared at him in surprise, then finished his beer because he was not drunk enough for that mental image. Fox had clearly had the same reaction so Jaune offered to get up and collect another pair of beers.

After ordering the drinks, Jaune saw the massive lighthouse painting out of the corner of his eye.

“Can you tell me the story behind the painting of the lighthouse?”

The bartender put the pair of glasses on the bar and started on the tale.

“A long time ago now, when the town was just new, the government established a customs station here, as would be expected for a port town. Except there was no port; the town was on neither the coast nor a state border and the small amount of river traffic all came from within the state. Within a year somebody declared, ‘We need that about as much as we need a lighthouse,’ and the painting was done not long after that statement was immortalised in the minutes of the local council meeting.”

Jaune just stared at the bartender, unsure if the story was anything close to the truth.

“I wish you luck in your new role, Mr Arc.”

“How did you know my name?”

“It’s a small town, Mr Arc. Everybody knows when things change.”

Ignoring the mildly disturbing comment, Jaune paid for the beer and returned to the table. Almost immediately upon putting the glasses down, the door opened again and Yatsuhashi lifted his hand in a half-wave. He looked over his shoulder to see Coco and another woman he didn’t know come through the door. Coco was well-dressed and forceful as always, but the second woman would have been taller than Coco had she not been trying to curl in on herself. Jaune recognised the signs of someone uncomfortable with where they were; he’d been doing that himself for most of his life. Coco dropped into a seat next to Fox and started asking him where her drink was while the second woman pulled a chair out slightly away from the table and sat down, as if she was trying to hide behind Coco still.

“Hello. You must be Velvet. I’m Jaune Arc.”

“Short, sweet,” began Yatsuhashi.

“Rolls off the tongue,” continued Fox.

“Ladies love it,” finished Coco with a wink. Jaune tried to hide his embarrassment behind a mouthful of beer.

“Coco said we were getting a new teacher this year. I’m sorry I missed the meeting. Is it true that you teach maths?” the new woman asked.

“Only maths teacher in the school, maybe in the whole town,” declared Fox. Jaune liked this new method of conversation; it left him more time to drink to get over his embarrassment. Fox regaled Velvet with slightly exaggerated tales of Jaune’s first day, Velvet became more comfortable, Jaune drank, and Yatsuhashi waved at the door again as Yang pushed it open to let three more of the teachers in.

The seat next to Jaune was taken by Pyrrha, the seat next to Yatsuhashi was taken by Blake, and Yang was left glaring at everyone because there were no empty seats. She glared harder at Jaune until Yatsuhashi came to his defence by pointing out that Jaune had been there before everybody else. When she placed the two jugs that had made her late on the table and went to find another chair, Jaune rubbed it in by refilling his beer glass from one of them.

Coco waited until Yang had made it back before she got up to order her drinks, coming back with a pair of expresso martinis and the distinctive coloured bands of a lemon, lime and bitters. The bitters went in front of Pyrrha and the conversation turned to simple talk of home — the harvesting of crops, the weather, the people. Jaune kept quiet and tried to take it in. He picked up when the farmers market was, which of the local sports teams were better, gardening advice for the local climate that he was not going to use and which of the two supermarkets treated their workers better (based on complaints from students about their part time jobs). It was when Coco started arguing that they should all only buy from the IGA because her cousin worked there that Jaune remembered why he’d come to the pub.

“Food.”

The other conversations that were happening abruptly stopped and everyone turned to look at Jaune. He realised what he had just said and started scratching the back of his neck while avoiding everyone’s eyes.

“I am a bit hungry...” came a gentle voice from beside him. Jaune looked up at Pyrrha to offer her a smile but instead caught the eye of the bartender, who was standing behind her, and jumped at the surprise. Pyrrha seemed to take his reaction as a slight against her until the older man’s voice announced his presence.

“Is the lady ready to order?”

“Ozma, you’ve known Pyrrha for a decade, you can use her name,” Coco stated.

“The crumbed barramundi with the salad please,” said Pyrrha, turning smoothly and unsurprised at his appearance.

“Same for me,” said Blake.

“The roast of the day,” said Yatsuhashi.

“Beef schnitzel, pepper sauce, salad,” said Fox.

Jaune still hadn’t seen a menu.

“Rump steak, medium with a Diane sauce and salad,” said Coco.

“Your fried tofu and pumpkin salad, if it’s not too much trouble?” asked Velvet.

“T-Bone steak with veggies. Rare,” said Yang.

“Ummm...” said Jaune.

“If you have had it at a pub before, Mr Arc, I am sure my wife can prepare it.”

“Can I just get a burger then?”

“I think you will be pleasantly surprised.” Ozma smiled enigmatically and wandered off.

Other conversations slowly restarted but there still wasn’t anything that Jaune could involve himself in. The level of the two jugs steadily dropped. Fox had slowed down after his first so most of the reason for that was Yang and Jaune. Blake tried a small amount as well when Yang pushed a glass into her hand, but otherwise people stopped at one drink.

The beer left Jaune with a pressing issue, so he pushed his chair back and wandered over to where he had spotted the toilets on his first trip around the pub. On his way back out he passed a series of team photos and spotted a familiar mane of long and brilliant red hair in one of them. There, front and centre in the netball team from six years ago, was Pyrrha. Apparently her last name was Nikos. Now that he knew what he was looking for, he found her again and again. Not just in the netball team, but in the women’s AFL team as well, proudly wearing her “The Beacon” team jersey and growing older through the years until her last appearance in the photo from six years ago, after which she must have left town for university. He found when she changed age group and counted back to discover that she must be the same age as he was.

He must have gotten more distracted than he thought by the photos, because the first plates of food were being served by a tall woman with solid black hair when he got back. Yatsuhashi was waiting politely for the others to be served, but both Coco and Velvet were eating away. Yang was glaring at him for some reason, but Pyrrha removed her hand from his seat and smiled when he sat down again.

“So, are you going to be playing in the netball team this year?” he asked her.

He’d thought it would be a nice safe topic of conversation. Everybody liked to brag about their successes and this was a perfect opportunity to do so. By the way that conversation died again, even the cutlery noises from Velvet and Coco stopping, it clearly wasn’t.

“I’m focusing on my job at the moment, but I may go back to it.” Pyrrha’s words had the sound of a rehearsed statement, and her smile looked more like one that people gave for cameras than something they did because they were happy. The arrival of the rest of the food with both the woman and Ozma serving couldn’t have been better timed.

Everyone focused on the plates in front of them, Jaune looking at the pile on his and wondering how he was meant to get his mouth around it. There was a small burger patty in there somewhere, but it had been buried in between beetroot, bacon, egg, lettuce, cheese, onion and tomato. The resulting stack was nearly too big to get his hands around and promised to fail the moment he tried to put it in his mouth. Yang noticed his problem.

“Yeah. That’s why we keep coming back here. No better feed in town.”

Yang took his steak knife and stabbed it through the top of the burger. With the blade holding everything in place, he could finally pick it up and eat it. His attempt to thank Yang for her help through an oversized mouthful of food earned him glares from both sides again. Their loss; the burger was amazing.

It felt like only seconds later that Jaune was soaking up the drippings with the chips that had been on the plate and wondering where all the food went. A quick glance showed him that everybody else at the table was facing the same problem. Conversation didn’t resume, everyone being too busy trying to digest all the food they had just eaten. It was Yang who broke the silence with a small burp. Velvet gently reprimanded her while Coco laughed.

“So, how badly are we going to beat the Catholic school this year?” asked Yang, mostly to stop Velvet from talking.

“We’ll win the track and field again; their best two runners graduated last year,” said Blake.

“I’ll miss them, they were the best in the under 18’s AFL team. I believe the swimming will go the other way as they’ve still got that swimmer who won everything last year and we lost our best,” supplied Pyrrha.

“Could you three be any bigger a set of jocks?” asked Velvet. “It’s not about who wins, it’s about our students being the best they can be. I’m looking forward to _all_ the performances in the Eisteddfod.”

Yatsuhashi grunted and nodded in support of Velvet.

“Is the debate competition still going to be running?” asked Fox.

“Glynda won’t let a year go by without it, even if we normally lose,” replied Blake.

Velvet shook her head and tried to change the subject. “Is there anybody we’re excited for entering the Show?”

“There’s a painter in year 11 this year that does beautiful watercolours. I should be able to convince them to submit some works but they’re probably just going to get shown up by Ren’s cake decorating again,” said Coco.

“Are there any academic competitions?” asked Jaune. He got mostly blank looks in response.

“Why bother? The Department of Education deals with that for us,” said Yang, and the other teachers went back to bickering over their ideas for how to ensure that their school came out appearing more prestigious.

It was Velvet who moved first, pushing back her chair and poking at Coco until the other woman stirred and tried to bat her hand away.

“We have work in the morning, you can’t be asleep while watching over the art classes,” Velvet said as she dragged Coco upright.

Yang stacked her plate with those of Coco and Velvet, poured the last of the beer into Jaune’s glass and stood up as well. She waved her goodbyes to the people on the other side of the table and punched Jaune in the arm with a “see you tomorrow”. Blake had somehow already disappeared.

Jaune drained the last bit of his glass and tidied the last of the plates. Yatsuhashi and Fox had started some bizarre debate about whose turn it was to complete some household chore and whether Fox should have another one for the road. Pyrrha was nervously fiddling with the edge of her plate until Jaune took it away and asked if she was ready to leave. Pyrrha nodded her assent, still not looking at him.

Once they were outside Pyrrha did finally speak to him, if only to ask how he was getting home.

“I’ll walk.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course! It’s not far, I can even see it from… here...” Now that it was night, all the landmarks that Jaune had been using to navigate had disappeared. Pyrrha hid a giggle behind her hand again.

“What is the address? I’ll walk you home.”

“No, no, you don’t need to do that.” Jaune took two steps and his body betrayed him, the alcohol interfering with his ability to put his feet where he wanted them. Pyrrha steadied him then asked for the address again. When he gave it, she seemed so much brighter.

“That’s easy to find. Come with me.”

Pyrrha led the way, her swinging ponytail acting as a beacon for Jaune to follow through the streets of his new town. They passed quiet streets and dark gardens, tall native trees and houses lit with internal light, until they came to a street Jaune recognised. Pyrrha pulled him up in front of a familiar driveway to the small set of units that he called home.

“I feel like I should walk you home. Anything could happen.”

“Jaune, even if I gave you my address, do you think you could find it?”

Jaune looked down at his feet and scratched at the back of head, unwilling to admit that he wouldn’t be able to.

“Besides,” Pyrrha said as she giggled again, “I don’t think much can go wrong while I walk four houses further.” And she pointed at a double storey house built on the larger corner block at the start of the next street.

Jaune told himself that he was watching just to make sure she got home safely, but after the final wave and her disappearing behind her door, he was forced in the dark to admit that Fox’s comment about the attractiveness of the school teachers was accurate. Very accurate.


End file.
